Speaking at the University of Wolverhampton yesterday, Martin Bell told an audience at an open public lecture to plug his latest, book that “he saw and heard an MP trade his vote for a peerage while he was a member”. He explained that he wouldn’t name the party involvedbecause he“didn’t want to spend the next 5 years in court”.

Some might think that reporting crime was a legal requirement, let alone a moral one, for the man in the white suit.